We hold that the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex. By a 4 to 2 margin, the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, upheld (70 page pdf) the state's Domestic Relations law that bars same-sex couples from getting married in New York and denying same-sex couples the hundreds of family protections provided to married couples. The court accepted the justifications advanced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for the state law barring marriage by same-sex couples. "Pointing out that stable relationships between parents are important for children, that straight couples can conceive children by 'accident,' and that gay couples can only have children with advance planning, Bloomberg and Spitzer argued that straight couples need the stability of marriage, but gay couples do not." The ruling was denounced by the ACLU, criticized by Howard Dean as based on "outdated and bigoted notions about families," and applauded by the Marriage Law Foundation pleased by the "superb and straightforward legal analysis." Background from NPR.
posted by three blind mice on Jul 7, 2006 - 104 comments